214 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



Seed to be 

 mixed with 

 ashes. 



Hand 

 weeding. 



flowers of the maize should be taken off as they appear so 

 as not exhaust the soil. As the tobacco seeds are very 

 small it is advisable to mix them with wood ashes, or fine 

 earth or slaked lime, in order to sow them evenly and not 

 too thickly. After sowing, the seed is to be lightly raked 

 into the soil, and if the weather be not showery, the beds 

 should be watered and kept moist. All weeds should be pulled 

 up by the hand as they grow, and care must be taken that 

 the seedling plants are not injured by insects. In about six 

 weeks the seedlings will be about three or four inches high, 

 and they can then be transplanted into the fields after a good 

 shower of rain. 



A fine tilth 

 essential. 



Harrowing. 



The furrows 



Distances. 

 Manures. 



Pigs put on 

 the land. 



Trans- 

 planting. 



Preparation of the Land. — The soil must be well 

 tilled so that the dehcate roots of the young plants can easily 

 penetrate it. To this end ploughing and cross-ploughing 

 should be done several times, or until the weeds are rotten 

 and the soil is loose and free. The clods of earth must be 

 broken up by the harrow. When this cannot be done a few 

 pieces of bamboo twelve feet long, with as many branches 

 and leaves as possible, may be drawn on the ground by an 

 ox or horse. The bamboo branches, in fact, answering the 

 same purpose as a harrow. The land is then ploughed into 

 furrows six inches deep and three feet apart, and the tobacco 

 seedlings are planted in the furrov/s at eighteen inches distance 

 from each other. In newly cleared land no manure will be 

 necessary, but in land that has been already cultivated rich 

 farm-yard manure should be applied before the final plough- 

 ing. The Cuban planters have abandoned artificial manures 

 although tobacco is a very exhausting crop, but lime, com- 

 post and wood ashes are used extensively, and pigs are 

 sometimes put on the land so as to improve the soil. 



Planting out. — A wet day should be selected for trans- 

 ferring the seedlings from the nurseries to the fields. The 

 young plants must be taken up carefully and the earth 

 shaken from the roots. It is advisable to plant in the after- 



